Netflix: Getting you on the board in the new year since 2018

Used to be that I wouldn't see my first movie of the new ranking year until mid- to late-February, as that was finally the time I deemed some theatrical release worthy of my ten bucks. (It was only ten bucks at that time, anyway.)

That's changed with my acquisition of a critics card back in 2015, making me less selective on the first theatrical release that's worth my time, because it don't cost nothing. And it's changed again with the advent of Netflix, which serves legitimate new movies up on a platter, at any time of the calendar year.

Last year for the first time, my first movie of the new ranking year was a Netflix movie, The Open House. This was only on the fringes of legitimacy -- it ended up being terrible -- but by having a few recognizable stars and otherwise walking and talking like a movie that the studios traditionally dump in January, it made the cut.

This year it's something far more prominent on the legitimacy scale, a movie that had its Sundance debut only five days ago, somehow. That's Dan Gilroy's Velvet Buzzsaw, his follow-up to the 2014 film Nightcrawler. It bowed on Netflix on February 1st, which is yesterday Australia time, still today when some of you are reading this. So, I saw it slightly before some of you had the chance to.

I wasn't a big fan of Nightcrawler, partially a byproduct of the hype that preceded it I'm sure. But given the pedigree of that film, and the preponderance of stars in this one (Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Toni Colette, John Malkovich, Daveed Diggs), it seemed like a good way to kick off 2019. Especially since M. Night Shyamalan's Glass, a logical starting point (like Split was a few years back), got lost in the shuffle of bad reviews and finishing up my 2018 viewing.

Well I like Velvet Buzzsaw more than Nightcrawler, but it didn't start out that way. This is the rare example of a film that gains its footing as it goes along. I really didn't care for about the opening 30 minutes of this film. As I got to better appreciate what its central narrative conceit would be, though, I felt it really started to hit its stride. (Gain its footing? Hit its stride? There are a lot of feet-related metaphors to describe something getting better, aren't there?)

I will say that Gyllenhaal likes playing outsized characters in movies released by Netflix. His Morf Vandewalt (the name alone) reminded me of how he went big in 2017's Okja, to the ultimate detriment of what was otherwise one of my favorite films of that year. I like Jake, but poor guy, he can't really win with me. When he plays a character who is clearly only a variation of himself, I think of him as having little to no range. When he plays a character with a capital C, he seems like he's trying too hard.

Anyway, I think you'll like this movie. Just stick with it.

And later this week, getting started on 2019 in the traditional theatrical sense with either Escape Room or Cold Pursuit. Thank goodness for that critics card.